tlie sori on their anterior side. The sori are oblong, covered
at first by membranous indusia, which are soon pushed aside;
the free margin is jagged or crenate.
A native of moist, rocky, mountainous districts in England,
Scotland, and Wales; occurring, also, though less
frequently, in Ireland, and throughout Europe.
It is not difficult to cultivate in pots in a close, damp,
cold frame; or on moist, shady rock-work, if covered over
by a bell-glass. If exposed, it is apt to suffer from occasional
excessive wet, which often does not properly drain away; and
also from the dry hot air of our summers. The object of
covering it with a glass is to avoid both these casualties, and
provided it is not kept too close it wiU then thrive well.
The proper bell-glasses for these haK-hardy Eerns are those
with a small opening in the crown, which may be closed or
not at pleasure, but, in general, are best left open. In pots
it should have a gritty, porous soil.
Genus Y U . ATHYRIUM, Roth.
In the Athyrnm we have perhaps the most variable of all
our native Eerns; though the varieties it presents, and
■U
which have been from time to time looked upon as afibrding
so many distinct kinds, are now almost universally considered
as different phases of one species. Viewed in this light, the
species is certainly not a very constant one, wliich fact seems
all the more inappropriate, inasmuch as the species itseK is
that to which the name of Lady Eern is applied. All the
various forms are plants with delicate and beautiful fronds
of annual duration, varying in size from tufts of a few inches
high, to plumy masses of the height of three or four feet.
The texture is thin, and almost transparent, on which account
the nature of the venation and of the connection of the parts
of fructification may be here very well seen and studied.
They serve to connect the Aspidium-like and the Asplenium-
like groups, differing, however, obviously from the former in
having the sori elongate instead of round; although from the
circnmstance that in age the sori here become somewhat
curved or reniform, thus approacliing the rounded form, this
very species, the Lady Eern, has, by many writers of discrimination,
been placed in the old genus Aspidium. If)
however, the fructification is examined while young, immediately
before or after the indusium has burst, its true character
will readily he seen. We have here an illustration of
the inconvenience which arises from the preservation only of